Any voting technology used for government elections in the U.S.
should be secure, accurate, reliable and auditable. To ensure confidence
in elections and to provide a paper record, voting machines should use a
voter-verified paper ballot that is the basis for recounts and auditing
the election. Direct recording equipment (DRE's) should be replaced with
paper-based voting methods such as Optical Scan and AutoMark-type
technology that utilizes a genuine paper ballot. The ideal method, to
maximize security and integrity, is to have a redundant record of every
vote. This means a system that has both a computerized record, or
"ballot image" of each vote, as well as a paper ballot record of each
individual vote (rather than merely running totals). This allows the
comparison of the two records as an additional layer of security.

Optical scan machines are examples of acceptable technology. Paper ballot machines with a computerized interface may be acceptable if
they generate paper ballots as the official ballots of record and print
ballots that are easily readable and test well for usability.

These should be coupled with a manual audit and other protocols such as
proper pre- and post-election testing, ballot accounting and secure chain of custody. All
government elections should be subject to random, manual, statistical
audits able to confirm election outcomes with a high level of
confidence. Because Internet voting cannot achieve the standards above,
it should not be used for government elections in the U.S. We recognize
the right of private associations to run their election on-line if
their members are willing to accept the inherent risk that comes with
online voting.

Advanced voting methods, such as those using ranked-choice ballots,
pose no more risk of fraud than more commonly used voting methods and
do not depend on the use of electronic voting. FairVote urges
jurisdictions, whether adopting advanced voting methods or not, to also
institute the above recommended procedures and voter-verifiable and
auditable voting technologies. We urge jurisdictions to set a new and
higher standard of transparency by following the precedent of cities
such as Burlington, VT and San Francisco, CA, in running ranked-ballot
elections, and implement "open source ballots" by also posting the
computerized record of every ballot on the Internet.

Longer term, FairVote believes that voting equipment and election
administration in the United States requires a national elections
commission to create minimum national election standards, and explore purchase of "public interest voting equipment" whereby the software and voting
equipment is open source and publicly owned.

In Detroit, there have been three mayors in the past two years and the current one has come under scrutiny. Perhaps a system like instant runoff voting will help bring political stability to motor city.